Former Arsenal and Real Madrid striker Nicolas Anelka has taken a coaching role with French team Lille where he will be working with the youth team. The former French international said that this is an exciting opportunity for him as he wants to work with youth players without being in the spotlight.
The former Arsenal player has previously been involved with Mumbai City in India as a player-coach. He said that this time around he wants to focus more on working with the youth and does not want to get involved with the professionals. He said that it has always been his dream to work as a coach and he feels that he will do it in the future.
At the moment he wants to learn the basics of coaching and he feels that working with the youth team at a club such as Lille is a step in the right direction.
The Lille chairman said that Nicolas Anelka is an experienced player and has played for the biggest clubs in the world. He said that they are honored to have him working with them and he is sure that the younger players will benefit a lot from his experience.
“He said that Lille has always devoted themselves to the formation of young players “
and that hiring a person such as Nicolas Anelka shows their desire for developing young players. He believes that Nicolas Anelka is an inspiration for many young French players as he has come to the professional stage at “a quite young age “ and has always performed at a high level.
Nicolas Anelka said that this is an exciting moment of his life and that he is looking forward to working with the young players and sharing a bit about his own experience of top-level football.